The Road to 40 Day 221/365: Playdates and Things

Vino had a playdate this day, which allowed for me to get some things done while he’s away.

The mom of one of his friends asked me the day before if we’re free for a playdate, which I said we could be. I took her kid with Vino one time to Kiztopia, which was practically the whole day as well, and she always mentioned that she wanted to return the favor by inviting Vino over for a playdate.

She’s a nice and warm lady, and her husband was someone I thought I could hang out with. Vino is friends with their kid, but I think not as close as he is with other friends. It’s something that I have to navigate as a parent, because I can’t dictate who he should be friends with based on who I want to hang out with.

Thankfully, he plays well with kids of longtime friends, so it’s never been an issue.

It would take an hour to get to his friends place, including about 15 minutes of walking, so we took a Grab ride.

Like most playdates in Singapore, I left him in their care and just went on my way.

This is not a place I normally go to, so it was an opportunity to walk around and maybe see a place where I can eat. From their place headning out to the main road, it took maybe about 10 minutes for me, and I walked around more to see how the commute would go later.

At one of the intersections, I saw Adam Road Food Center. It’s one of the popular hawker centers here in Singapore, but I wasn’t sure what for. I remember we went here a long time ago because there was a stall that offered 10-dollar pints of beer or something.

It was a little before lunchtime, so I wasn’t going to have beer. I saw on Google that there was an interesting Malay-style chicken rice here, so I got one of those. There was a satay store right beside it, which I had ordered from as well.

Right by their area was a drink stall who was asking if I wanted a drink. I said I wanted a large iced Milo. It cost 4.00SGD, which I thought was a bit pricey. When they gave it to me, I saw that it was indeed huge.

The Malay-style chicken rice was a bit more dry than the regular roast chicken that I’ve grown accustomed to. The soup pairs well though, and the rice was really flavorful – way better than the Hong Kong-style regular rice with sauce.

Satay was ok. Like Singapore chicken rice, you can’t go wrong anywhere you get it. I enjoyed my meal while watching Confidence Queen. I was the only one sitting on one of the five or six tables in the middle, and it didn’t take long before rain fell.

I thought about moving, but decided against it since it felt cozy where I was. That was until the rain poured real hard and I didn’t really have a choice but stay there.

Once that was done, I walked over to the train station to go home. The iced Milo was not friendly for me, as expected, and I had to try and endure it for a few minutes.

Back home, I planned on cleaning up a bit, help with packing, write the blog, prepare dinner, and maybe get a quick treadmill run in. However, after my Milo-induced toilet break, I had zero energy for anything.

Meanwhile, Vino’s friend’s mom sent updates on what the boys were doing. They saw a bit of sunlight, apparently, and decided to go for a swim and go on a playground run.

Later, they went back to the screens, which was fine, I guess. It’s what I did before when I went to a friend’s house.

After drifting to sleep a bit, I did got up to write and got my stuff ready for packing. I was able to clean up as well before heading out to pick up Vino.

The commute takes about an hour, so I left around 4pm just to be safe. I took the train and got on a bus, and I was there a little past 5pm. I thought was a bit early, so I told the mom that I’d be hanging out in a bar right outside their condo until the boys got ready to go.

I got a pint of Guinness and some spring rolls, but not even halfway through, I was told that one of the guys who visited was picked up already. I quickly finished up to get Vino, and I got to catch up with the mom.

We were sharing our frustrations about the screens, and as a caucasian, she was a bit on the gentle parenting side. I know for a fact that his Asian dad wasn’t doing that, so when the kid acted up a bit about wanting to get his tablet for an “important” message, I had to tell him it’s not that important.

The mom and I had a bit of fun with him while we waited for our cab. We got home to Che having a meeting with someone online. I got to work on dinner while Vino went to the room first.

After dinner, Che still had a lot more meetings to go, so Vino and I retreated to the room. He asked me to play this game called The Forge in Roblox. It was kind of like Diablo in a way, as you do several quests after talking to NPCs. I guess it gets its title from the fact that you have to forge your own weapons and armor.

We did that for quite a while, and after Che got done with her calls, she proceeded to continue packing our stuff.

We’re headed out tomorrow, so Vino and I will do some last-minute home errands while Che goes to work.